Friday, October 17, 2008

Anyway part of what we are seeing in the US presidential election in the McCain/Palin campaign as it were is a spill-over from the angry hateful fear mongering which has become the mainstay of right-wing Talk Radio and their counterparts on TV a, in Newspapers and on the Internet of what are often referred to as Shock Jocks aka Hate Speech. So I went back and looked at Bill Moyers program on the subject & the articles at Alternet . One should also take a look at articles on the subject at StopDogWhistleRacism.Com etc.

Segment from the September 12, 2008 broadcast of Bill Moyers' Journal. Correspondent Rick Karr examines the consequences of hate speech by right-wing radio talk show hosts. Part 1 of 2. Part 2 at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bs5hUs...also see PBS Website: Bill Moyers Journal

Rachel Maddow with David Frum Oct. 13, 2008

When did David Frum get a conscience. He was for many years disdainful of any criticism of the Bush/Cheney administration. This is all odd coming from David Frum who is an apologist for the Bush/Cheney disastrous regime. So when did he decide he was against attacks on one's opponents using flippancy , distortions of truth, making wild accusations when McCain's negative campaign strategy was not gaining support. If the strategy was working for McCain Frum would be praising him while attacking the Evil Liberal elite or what his fellow travelers call " Godless Liberals ". In America being small " l" liberal or progressive are seen as the equivalent to being UnAmerican. So the thought of a Black somewhat liberal president is driving many Americans like David Frum nuts. It is their worst nightmare.

Does he really see no difference between McCain/Palin's wild accusation and Rachel Maddow or others bringing up facts about McCain or Palin.

Keith Olbermann: David Frum Lies About His Interview With Rachel Maddow

It has been the nation's yoke - but also its salvation.The Neo-Cons, the Bushies, the Contractors from Contract With America - the whole cornucopia of schemers, manipulators, and corner-cutters - have a thirst for power and control that is exceeded by only one personality facet:Their stupidity.Our latest winner, David Frum, the auteur of The Axis Of Evil, the guy who decided it was a good idea to try to sandbag his intellectual superior, Rachel Maddow, and wound up lucky to not have his eyebrows singed off.He has done it again.He has attributed a quote to me about the Reichstag fire - leaving no room for doubt that I said it, that I somehow said it about him, that I even called John McCain a "Nazi."As convinced and unequivocal as the "evidence" demanding the invasion of Iraq.And just as wrong.I never said anything of the kind, on television or off. The quote he attributed to me was from a blogger. And here's the biggest shock - he hasn't corrected it.

Here's David Frum defending Bush . He claims that the war in Iraq is now going well.

David Frum attacks George Galloway claiming Galloway has no manners and no integrity. Meanwhile Frum was a supporter of the war in Iraq based on lies which he like other neocons knew the intel had been cooked up. Frum plays on the buzzing of American warships which was a minor incident blown out of proportion by Bush & the Neocons. Frum also does not really answer the question about why Israel is permitted to have a hundred or more nuclear weapons ( which goes against International Agreements) while Iran is not permitted to have any. Frum does not of course believe in the United Nations or in International Agreements . He believes as Bush and Cheney do that America is not bound by any such agreements and must be allowed to act unilaterally whenever it wishes to. Frum also ignores the death toll in Iraq of Iraqi civilians since those civilians are not part of America's strategy and goals in the Middle East. Frum does not respect anyone who dares challenge his Neoconservative agenda or that of Bush & Cheney. He is upset by anyone questioning the polices of not just Bush but of America. In the same way he would defend Israel no matter what it does.

George Galloway destroys crazed Neocon David Frum.

In this clip below from Larry King Frum attacks Barack Obama claiming he never accomplished anything . He claims that Obama's only talent is as a great orator. He asked the question which McCain and Palin keep asking in their speeches " Who is Obama" but note this statement was made by David Frum in Feb. 18, 2008 some eight months ago.

Larry King: David Frum Gets Smacked for His Bush Love

On Larry King Live, David Frum commenting on the dust up between the Obama and Clinton campaigns tries to say that Obama has never accomplished anything in his life and is only running on words. Ron Reagan, Peter Beinart and Stephanie Miller quickly call him out for his support of Bush who had a record of running every business he had into the ground and the fact that Obama has actually accomplished a few things in his life.

David Frum also claims that the United States did not support and help to arm Saddam . But the facts on the ground are that The US backed Saddam in his Proxy War against Iran. He further denies America backed other brutal anti-democratic governments in the Middle East. The United States has backed a number of brutal dictatorships which David Frum denies. He like other Neocons are involved in re-writing American History to fit with idealized view of America-this is known as revisionism. He of course defends the Patriot Act and sees no problem investigating large numbers of Americans.

He believes the legacy of Bush administration will be judged a good job on the issue of fighting Terrorism. Frum refers to the issue of torture at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo as unfortunate scandals but completely exonerates the Bush administration. The old " a few bad apples " argument or "a break down in communication " . Yet we know that Cheney and Rumsfeld and others were encouraging so called interrogators to use harsher methods .

He more or less laughs the whole thing off in the same way that Michelle Malkin or Bill O'Reilly or Ann Coulter do. Frum is after all a speech writer and so is adept at saying some things in a rather ambiguous manner. When asked about American values being at risk after 9/11 he prefers not to talk about torture or the suspension of Haebeas Corpus or due process or that America has set up kangaroo courts to deal with detainees or that those released have to admit to their sins even if they are not true and then are told if they talk about their treatment of others at Guantanamo they will be re-arrested. Nor does Frum like to talk about extraordinary renditions - but of course he doesn't care about such silly issues since America is at War with most of the world it seems and must act in its own best interest .

see:

Conversations with History: David Frum May 5, 2004. at You Tube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LzeqrQMKfTIHost Harry Kreisler welcomes former Bush speech writer David Frum for a discussion of the defining features of the Bush administration's response to the terrorist acts of 9/11. He also reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of President Bush and lays out a program for the United States in the war on terrorism. Series: Conversations with History

Or checkout Lauren at Feministe speaking about Frum's accusation that it is not only Republicans who have gone negative but the Democrats and the Media and especially Rachell Maddow who he said had “symbiotic relationship with negativity.”

Odd how all the negativity at Fox News and other Republican friendly media never bothered poor little David but now he claims what that the Democrats and the Media are taking issue with the Republican's control of the US Media and saw nothing wrong with the Bush administration feeding the Media " talking Points" ie WMDS, " The smoking Gun is a Mushroom cloud " that Saddam was involved with 9/11 . He along with other Neocons have been demonizing and clling anyone who dares question the Iraq War as disloyal Americans or traitors. Has the American public just finally got tired of the Bush/Cheney/David Frum/Karl Rove Fox News " Spin ". This scares the hell out of him , I guess. Many Canadians writing about Bush often try to avoid attacking David Frum because his mother now deceased Barbara Frum worked with the CBC that Socialist institution David hates as does his friend Stephen Harper but she was well respected and was seen as a real Journalist with integrity that is she would often as not pursue the truth no matter where it led. While David Frum is a fanatical ideologue who pursues his agenda no matter what and for him integrity is just a word used by " liberals " because like all Neocons he believes he is part of that elite group which is entitled to wield power over the " unwashed masses ".

And he believes that to tell " Noble Lies " is not a bad thing. Being a good Straussian and one of Cheney's loyal lap dogs - just another Quisling scholar wannabe who belongs to Think Tanks where only Right-Wing thinking is allowed. That's no how real scholars go about their business. His mind was closed a long time ago. Maybe if his mother had lived much longer she could scold him for how he has behaved since he first started working for George Bush & CO. But maybe not as Canada is still lurching slowly but surely towards Stephen Harper's vision of a Neoconservative heartless country run by the greedy and power hunger Racists and anti-Feminist Homophobic Evangelicals who are poised for the End-Times. As for Frum- For instance he and others helped George Bush package himself as a " Compassionate Conservative"- a lie of grave consequences for millions of Americans who have been forgotten during the Bush years - these people , the poor , the disabled , war veterans , single mothers, the working poor have been left to languish in poverty and desperation as a passive form I guess of eugenics - let the poor and other weaklings die out so the strong can survive and thrive . Frum lives in a world of the well-off, the well connected and the powerful and has little sympathy for those who by chance, by circumstances have not been as favored as he .

... David Frum says he believes that the negative tone in politics that “has been a feature” (not a bug — for Republicans) in American politics for some time now, which is perfectly illustrated, “unfortunately,” by Rachel Maddow’s “failed” commentary, is suddenly dangerous for the American people. Because it is no longer getting conservatives into office. Or more specifically, Frum says the tone is dangerous because it is no longer working for the Republican party to make unimportant issues a “spectator sport,” and thus “we all have to do better” to improve the tone of political discourse.

He also quotes Ghandi.

Now I don’t know how Frum can haul around the stones necessary to be such a condescending, arrogant prick on national television, but I’d bet money he wouldn’t have pulled this crap on Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, god forbid, Joe Scarborough, or any other male interviewer. He saved the shame for Maddow, and accused her and only her for having a “symbiotic relationship with negativity.”...The irony of DAVID FRUM, author of “The Right Man: I Heart George Bush” and creator of the phrase “axis of evil,” who is suddenly so concerned about the national tone that he demands to know what Rachel Maddow is going to do to improve the tone of national politics, is that Frum cannot answer how Maddow’s legitimate criticism of campaign strategy is in any way equivalent to recent calls for the assassination of the Democratic candidate. Because it’s not. Which was the point of the interview in the first place.

Note: David Frum a known War Monger and supporter of torture and renditions and sending out the police armed as if they were in Bagdad against protesters in American cities who sees no problem with poor homeless people or War Vets left to starve or freeze to death who wouldn't put money into Vets hospitals , who thinks that if you can't afford medications or a necessary medical procedure or a stay in a hospital then you have to do without - many people couldn't even pay the cost of an ambulance ride let alone hospitalization well that's just the way the world ought to be - that's compassionate Conservatives for you -was actually had the audacity to quote Ghandi. If Ghandi or Ghandi like character or even Martin Luther King were around today and they were to organize the people of the United States to protest against Bush &co. I have no doubt David Frum would use the excuse that America is at war to have him locked up & tortured- remember when King was protesting in the 1960s America was at War in Vietnam supporting another corrupt and brutal regime .

" Dog-Whistle Racism is political campaigning or policy-making that uses coded words and themes to appeal to conscious or subconscious racist concepts and frames. For example, the concepts ‘welfare queen,’ ’states’ rights,’ ‘Islamic terrorist,’ ‘uppity,’ 'thug,' 'tough on crime,' and ‘illegal alien’ all activate racist concepts that that have already been planted in the public consciousness and now are being activated by purposeful or accidental campaign activities, media coverage, public policy and cultural traditions. So, what’s dog whistle racism? It’s pure political theater to push buttons to win elections and policies. StopDogWhistleRacism.com, a project of the Center for Social Inclusion, is here to identify, expose and help you to track it. Join us. "

Here's an Example from the website:

Newsweek: The Stumper: The ‘Evil’ EyePosted on October 16, 2008 by ludovic blain

Pop quiz, hotshot: Whose peepers are peeking out at us over the words “America Must Look Evil in the Eye” on this new mailer from the Republican Party of Virginia?PHOTO HERE evil eyes of Obama

---Not sure? Either am I. And that’s probably the point.The mailer hits “Democrats who want to control Washington“–translation: Barack Obama–for wanting to appease terrorists and rogue leaders, so it’s natural that some readers would conclude that it’s Barack Obama in the picture. Then again, the pamphlet also boasts glamor shots of Kim Jong Il, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad and Hugo Chavez, so others might assume it’s Osama bin Laden. Either way, when TPM’s Greg Sargent asked Virginia GOP spokesperson Gerry Scimeca whether the photo was bin Laden or Obama, “he couldn’t immediately say.” Based on side-by-side images of the two figures, both guesses seem reasonable.…That ambiguity is sneaky–to put it mildly. Virginia Republicans could’ve chosen to use a full facial photograph on this page of the mailer–just as they did with ChavezThat ambiguity is sneaky–to put it mildly. Virginia Republicans could’ve chosen to use a full facial photograph on this page of the mailer–just as they did with Chavez, Kim and Ahmadinejad. That would’ve cleared up any possible confusion. Referring to either Obama or bin Laden in the text, like the party did with “the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea,” would’ve accomplished the same task. Given that they didn’t–deliberately, I’m assuming–I only see three possible readings of the photo:

2) It’s an image of a random, unidentifiable dark-skinned individual–in which case the Virginia GOP is implying that anyone with darker skin (a group that would include both Obama and bin Laden) is an “evil” threat. Still not sold.

3) It’s an image of bin Laden cropped (and darkened, much like Time magazine’s famous O.J. Simpson cover) to plausibly pass as Obama–in which case the Virginia GOP is explicitly (and appropriately) equating bin Laden with “evil” while implicitly (and inappropriately)equating Obama with bin Laden. By far the most likely explanation.